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The United States government is currently in a shutdown because President Donald Trump wants to build a wall — a “big, beautiful wall” along the United States’ border with Mexico. But a viral video posted by Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Tex.) illustrates exactly why Trump’s beloved wall is completely unfeasible.
First of all, if you’re going to build a wall along the Mexican border, that means building it alongside the Rio Grande, America’s fourth longest river which, as Think Progress points out, has been flooding more frequently and with increasing severity. So if the government can’t build the wall right along the river, that would mean it would have to use eminent domain to seize land from Americans who currently own land where Trump wants to put the wall.As an article in the libertarian publicationReason noted, most of the land along the border is owned by private citizens, Native American tribes, and the state of Texas.
Furthermore, O’Rourke’s video points out, building a wall would create hundreds of thousands of acres of a “no man’s land” between the river and the wall. It would also destroy important wildlife corridors and federally-preserved lands.
The video also mentions that since 2007, most undocumented immigration is occurring because people are overstaying their visas, not because they are crossing the border illegally. Therefore, a wall would do little to deter this type of immigration.
But, of course, none of the reasons outlined above will stop President Trump from holding the government — and the paychecks of 800,000 federal workers — hostage while he demands funding for his pet project.
